Katy Perry: The biggest pop star on the planet?

Since her début back in 2008 there is no question that Katy Perry has been a dominant force within the music industry and has become one of the world’s biggest pop stars.

It seems that from the release of her first single ‘I Kissed A Girl’ that Katy Perry has never been away from the charts and the airwaves, as you know three albums into her career she has built up a loyal fan base and generated huge records sales worldwide. 2013 saw Katy release her third studio album ‘Prism’ with the lead single ‘Roar’ being a global smash hit, topping charts all across the globe. With the music video for the track receiving over 400 million views in the space of 6 months it would seem that the momentum for Katy’s music was unstoppable as Lady GaGa for example who many have considered hasn’t had as a successful comeback as Katy Perry with her ‘ARTPOP’ album.

However, many have said that the success of ‘Prism’ did not match that of its predecessor ‘Teenage Dream’ which was a pivotal record in Katy’s career, as the dreaded second album is for any artist as it is known to properly make or break someone within the industry. With ‘Teenage Dream’, many records were broken including the most number one singles by a female artist on the Billboard Hot 100 and also equalled Michael Jackson’s record in the process. ‘Prism’ did not receive as much critical appraisal as ‘Teenage Dream’ and the albums second single ‘Unconditionally’ didn’t perform as well as expected by peaking at number 14 in the US and number 25 in the UK charts despite a televised performance on ‘The X-Factor’ final.

Along with all of this Katy Perry hasn’t had much success at the recent award ceremonies even though she has been asked to perform at them and in the process put on some show stopping performances. At the Grammy awards she lost out on both ‘Song of the Year’ and ‘BestPop Solo Performance’ to New Zealand teenager Lorde and her global number 1 track ‘Royals’. It was a similar situation at the BRIT Awards where Lorde took the ‘Best International Female’ award over Katy , which seemed to shock many especially the 17 year old singer herself. It would seem despite being presented by many as the biggest pop star on theplanet doesn’t always make you a shoe in to win awards and was there something that Katy was missing that ultimately made her lose out on these accolades.

There is no question that Katy Perry is one of the most well-loved and successful performers of recent times with numerous number 1’s and awards to her name. It is clear that she holds a great deal of influence within the industry. This doesn’t always mean that an artist is guaranteed longevity as the music comes first and foremost. For Katy Perry now three albums in and still going strong it is clear that she doesn’t intend on moving from the musical top spot anytime soon.